Scroll down to view information about past exhibitions at the Kinsey Gallery. Some of these exhibitions are available online. You can also find information about shows at other galleries which featured artwork and artifacts from the Kinsey Institute Collections.
Some listings have links to online galleries.

This exhibit presents a selection of vintage photographs of women in lingerie from the Kinsey Institute art collection paired with corsets, slips, brassieres, and other articles of clothing on loan from the Sage Collection.

The Taste of Seduction examines the rich tradition of linking the enjoyment of food and drink with sex and arousal, through works of art and cultural artifacts in the Kinsey Institute collections.. This exhibit will include approximately fifty artworks, artifacts, and print materials from The Kinsey Institute’s research collections that relate to the consumption of food and drink and its association with sexual desire, romantic love and seduction.

Opening Event: September 19th from 4:30-7:00. The Taste of Seduction: Arousing Desire with Edible Aphrodisiacs, an interactive event allowing visitors to taste and explore foods and non-alcoholic beverages associated with passion, romance, and stimulation.

In an adjoining gallery, visit Beyond Mapplethorpe: Selections from The Kinsey Institute. This exhibition features prints by photographers who either influenced Robert Mapplethorpe’s work or were his contemporaries in the 1970s and 1980s. The show contains more than twenty photographs by George Platt Lynes, Herb Ritts, Len Prince, Arthur Tress, Tom Bianchi, and Bettina Rheims. Although these images may not be as overtly sexual as some of Mapplethorpe’s photographs, they reveal the same interest in exploring and expanding the artistic possibilities of the human figure.

On Oct. 24, Andrew Moisey will present the gallery talk "Robert Mapplethorpe: Pleasure and Pain" at noon in the Grunwald Gallery. Moisey is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers University.

The Mapplethorpe exhibition and corresponding programs have been made possible by The College Arts and Humanities Institute in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Grunwald Gallery of Art, the Department of Sociology, the Center for Integrative Photographic Studies, and The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, all at Indiana University; the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in New York; Michael E. Rudder of California; and other private donors. Malcolm Daniel, photography curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Claude Cookman, professor emeritus of the School of Journalism at IU, were instrumental in acquiring these gifts to The Kinsey Institute from the Mapplethorpe Foundation.

Creative Minds features work produced by artists whose primary professions are as sex researchers, physicians, or scientists. This exhibition in the main gallery features drawings, glass art, photographs, sculpture and video by Robert Latou Dickinson, Rachel Liebert, John Money, Jeffrey Rothenberg, Andreas Schneider, Jill Bolte Taylor, David Teplica, Leonore Tiefer, Michael P. Wenzler, and Martin Weinberg.

The Kinsey Institute is pleased to be included in “The Burroughs Century,” a 5-day festival in Bloomington from February 5 through 9, which will examine and celebrate the legacy of William S. Burroughs, one of the principal figures of the Beat Generation and a ground-breaking American writer and artist.

The Right to Read examines the pivotal role that Grove Press, which published Burroughs’ Naked Lunch and many other controversial books, played in the censorship battles of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The Kinsey Institute Library houses hundreds of books and serials issued by Grove Press, an independent publishing house in New York. Publisher Barney Rosset did not hesitate to challenge long-standing obscenity laws in his quest to bring some of the 19th and 20th century’s most intriguing literature to American readers. In addition to the work of Burroughs, Grove Press was the first to legally publish Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence, as well as the works of Henry Miller, Jean Genet, and anonymous Victorian authors of erotic literature.

Opening reception: Friday, January 24, 5:00 to 7:00 pm, The Kinsey Institute, Morrison Hall. The reception is free, and refreshments will be provided.

Beauty and the Beast: The Erotic Art of Ian Hornak

January 24 - April 4, 2014

Beauty and the Beast: The Erotic Art of Ian Hornak showcases a major gift of drawings and paintings from the estate of 20th century American artist Ian Hornak. Hornak (1944 - 2002) lived and worked in New York, where he was one of the founding artists of the Photorealist and the Hyperrealist movements. He is now recognized as one of the preeminent representational artists of his generation. Although best known for his landscapes, Hornak’s early work from the late 1960s often focused on the nude figure, at times combining human and animal anatomy.

Opening reception: Friday, January 24, 5:00 to 7:00 pm, The Kinsey Institute, Morrison Hall. The lecture and reception are free, and refreshments will be provided.

Lecture: “The Life, Work and Legacy of Ian Hornak”: Eric Ian Hornak Spoutz (executive director of the Ian Hornak Foundation) will discuss the art and career of Ian Hornak and his association with Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and other major 20th century artists.

This exhibition brought together older artworks from the collection and recent acquisitions to explore the connection between the work of contemporary artists and artwork and imagery from past eras. The exhibit was a contribution to the Fall 2013 Themester: “Connectedness: Networks in a Complex World."

Photographer Barbara Nitke spoke at Indiana University on October 10 in conjunction with Past/Present.

La Vida Sexual presents artwork from Latin America or produced by artists originally from Latin American countries. Included in this show are drawings and watercolors by Cuban-born artist Emilio Sanchez and works by Argentinian artists Leonor Fini and Leandro Natale, as well as a selection of Spanish language publications fromthe Kinsey Institute Library.

This exhibition was offered in celebration of the 40th anniversary of La Casa, the Latino Cultural Center at Indiana University.

Face Value: Portraits from The Kinsey Institute explores the various ways that artists utilize the portrait. This exhibition in the main gallery includes contemporary and vintage photographs, as well as painting, prints, and sculpture.

One of the featured artists, renowned photographer Judy Dater, lectured about her work and caree ron opening night. For details regarding the lecture, visit: the Facebook Event page.

Public reception was held on Friday, April 12, 5:30-7:30 pm at The Kinsey Institute, Morrison Hall.

Casual Encounters

April 12 - August 30, 2013

Casual Encounters, in the institute's Corridor Gallery, takes a look at intimate yet anonymous sexual interactions, as depicted by European and American artists from the 18th century to the present day.

Drawing on the Kinsey Institute's permanent collections, Naked Spaces investigates the ways artists manipulate architectural representation to communicate ideas about sex, gender, and the erotic. Architectural form is used by artists working around the globe--and across time--as an invitation to view, but also as a plea for privacy; architectural space is used a framing device as well as screen. The diversity of artworks included in the exhibition creates an opportunity for viewers to consider the role played by the built environment in the construction of their own private and public identities.

Guest curator Susan Johnson-Roehr, Ph.D., is an architectural historian at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

A Place Aside: Artists and Their Partners

September 28 - December 20, 2012

Since the invention of photography, the camera has been turned towards loved ones to document birthdays, vacations, graduations, and other significant events. For each of the couples included in this exhibition, however, photography is not a method of simply recording events but a means of exploring their partnership through the creation of art.

While the photographs serve as documents of a couple’s life together, they also reveal the trust and respect that each partner has for the other. A Place Aside, organized by guest curator Garrett Hansen, features images from nine contemporary photographers working in the United States, China, Brazil, and Japan: Jeff Moerchen, Alexis Culver, Audim Culver, Gustavo Gomes, Yuhki Touyama, Fabien Seguin, Julie Barnofski, Garrett Hansen, and Tanya Bezreh.

Lecture: Closer: Weston, Callahan, and Cameron Photograph their Partners, Friday, September 28, 12:15–1 pm, Indiana University Art Museum. Garrett Hansen, photographer and guest curator of A Place Aside, will discuss the role of relationships in the work of three photographers represented in the IU Art Museum’s collection and their influence on his own work. Prints by Edward Weston, Harry Callahan, and Julia Margaret Cameron are included in Intimate Models: Photographs of Husbands, Wives, and Lovers, on view at the IU Art Museum from September 11– December 16, 2012. Garrett Hansen’s photographs of his wife, Ellen, are included in A Place Aside.

Gender Expressions

September 28 - December 20, 2012

Gender Expressions uses contemporary photographs, fine art prints, and other materials from the Kinsey Institute collections to illustrate the various ways that people express their gender identity or challenge societal expectations about gender roles. A selection of magazines, books, newspaper clippings, and other materials from the library and archives takes a look at transgender history in the United States.

Ephemeral Ink features depictions of tattoos and tattooing that provide a glimpse into the evolution of tattooing style and technique over the course of a hundred years. Individuals from many walks of life and of all ages have had their bodies marked with needle and ink, for both personal and professional reasons. These marks change through time as bodies age, inks change, and tattoos are added to, covered up, or otherwise altered. Vintage and contemporary photographs in Ephemeral Ink allow us to see people’s tattoos at particular moments in their lives.

The exhibition was curated by Amy Tims, a historian and librarian who recently graduated from the Indiana University School of Library and Information Science. A version of this show was on exhibit at Marian University, February 20 - March 23, 2012.

The Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show includes artworks addressing gender issues, sexuality, reproduction, sexual politics, romantic relationships, and the human figure. In 2012, artworks have been selected from among the applicants by a panel of three jurors: Louise Lippincott, Curator of Fine Arts at Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Betsy Stirratt, Director of the Grunwald Gallery of Art at Indiana University, and Catherine Johnson-Roehr, Curator of Art, Artifacts and Photographs at The Kinsey Institute.

All works selected by the jurors will be included in The Kinsey Institute Juried Art Show 2012 at the Grunwald Gallery of Art, May 18 to July 21. Prizes for "Best in Show" and "Gallery Visitors' Choice" were awarded at the opening reception at the Grunwald Gallery of Art on May 18, 2012.

For more information about the artworks, opening night events, and visiting Bloomington to see the show, visit the Juried Art Show page »

Artworks from previous juried shows may be viewed by following the links below:

Man as Object presents works of art that examine the visibility of men and masculinity from female/feminist/transgender perspectives. By surveying the ways men are represented in contemporary art by women, this exhibition opens new dialogues regarding the myriad of ways women view men in today's culture and society. It marks an important development in feminist art, which has long concentrated on images of women meant to challenge stereotypical notions of womanhood. A gallery filled with works depicting men, created by women, actively resists the prevalence of the male gaze in art. This traveling exhibition will be accompanied by a selection of artworks by female artists depicting men that is drawn from the permanent collection of The Kinsey Institute.

Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze was organized by Karen Gutfreund, Priscilla Otani, and Brenda Oelbaum for the Women’s Caucus for Art with Tanya Augsburg, Assistant Professor, San Francisco State University, as Juror. Prior to coming to Bloomington, it was shown at the SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco.

An opening reception was held at The Kinsey Institute on Friday, April 13, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm. A panel discussion, A Dialog with the Artists on Man as Object: Reversing the Gaze, was held prior to the show opening, April 13, from 4:00 to 5:00, in Morrison 007 (ground floor).

This timely exhibition, drawn entirely from the Kinsey Institute’s art and library collections, features visual material from the American Civil War to the 21st century. Many of the items represent popular culture in America during World War II, as Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues spent those years traveling around the country collecting a variety of research material as well as data for their study of human sexual behavior. Cartoons, propaganda leaflets, postcards, photographs, magazines, pin-up calendars, drawings, prints, and a variety of novelty objects are featured, as well as a selection of contemporary images by Garrie Maguire, Len Prince, Herbert Ascherman, and other photographers whose work addresses war in the modern age.

Opening reception was held Friday, January 20, The Kinsey Institute Gallery, Morrison Hall.

ALSO: Read When Sex and War Meet - Featuring images from the exhibit and an interview with Catherine Johnson-Roehr, produced by WFIU.

The Photographs of Len Prince

Untitled, 1991

October 21 - December 21, 2011

Len Prince is a New York-based photographer who has produced an impressive range of work in a career that spans more than four decades. He excels at portraiture and is especially known for his work with celebrities such as Debbie Harry, Eddie Izzard, and Drew Barrymore. His striking photographs of the nude figure display his skill with composition and lighting.

Prince has recently completed a major body of work titled Self Possessed, for which he collaborated with Jessie Mann, the daughter and model of noted photographer Sally Mann. The Kinsey Institute is fortunate to have received a major gift of more than 225 Len Prince photographs from his long-time patron William Zewadski. This exhibition features a representative selection of prints from this donation.

Storytellers provides a rare opportunity for gallery visitors to view a wide range of material pulled from The Kinsey Institute’s extensive library collection, with an intriguing selection of pulp fiction paperbacks from the 1960s, illustrated erotic novels, underground comic books, Japanese pillow books, and other narrative texts. Story-driven artworks are also included in the exhibition, ranging from vintage photographs, prints, watercolors, and drawings by anonymous and known artists to a series of Judy Chicago lithographs and other contemporary pieces.

Opening reception was held on Friday, April 8, 5:00 - 7:00 pm, The Kinsey Institute Gallery.

As We See Them: Exotic and Erotic Images from Modern Alternative Process Photographers

Charles West
KWRV2 #1, 2007Cyanotype

January 21 through April 1, 2011

Organized by guest curators Herbert Ascherman Jr. and Jeannette Palsa, As We See Them presents the work of eleven artists who are using some of the earliest photographic processes to create contemporary images dealing with sexuality and the human figure. This diverse group of photographers has put aside digital technology to explore the possibilities of these 19th century processes. Featured works include cyanotypes by Patrick Alt and Charles West, platinum-palladium prints by Herbert Ascherman Jr. and Jeannette Palsa, gum bichromate prints by Laurent Benaïm, photogravures by Constantine Gedal, tintypes by Cynthia Greig, ambrotypes by Ed Ross, daguerreotypes by Charlie Schreiner, and aluminum-types by Mark Sink and Kristen Hatgi.

January 30 - March 2, 2012 at the IUPUI Cultural Arts Gallery, Indianapolis

Nature & Nurture is the first exhibition from The Kinsey Institute to highlight its collection of fine art, books, and other materials on the subject of human reproduction. The exhibition uses fine art photographs, paintings, prints, sculptures, and books to illustrate pregnancy, birth, child rearing, development of gender identity, and parent/child relationships.

In 2002, an anonymous American collector generously donated more than six hundred original artworks to The Kinsey Institute. This exhibition features more than 50 pieces from this significant collection, including paintings, prints, and drawings by known and anonymous European artists working in the late eighteenth through mid-twentieth century.

Unlike most Kinsey Institute exhibitions that display artworks acquired from a wide variety of sources, this show provides visitors with the opportunity to view a unique collection that reflects the connoisseurship of a single individual. Featured artists include Suzanne Ballivet, Franz von Bayros, Louis-André Berthommé de Saint-André, Charles Chaplin, Édouard Chimot, Jean Cocteau, Dominique Vivant Denon, Jules Pascin, and Fédor Rojankovsky (aka Rojan).

Jurors for the 2010 Juried Art Show are Lisa D. Freiman, Ph.D., Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Indianapolis Museum of Art; Betsy Stirratt, Director of School of Fine Arts Gallery at Indiana University; and Garry Milius, Associate Curator at The Kinsey Institute.

Visit the exhibit website to view artworks, hear an interview with the curators, and discover the winners of Best in Show and The People's Choice awards.

These “artworks” were intended for private consumption and created with specific individuals in mind, unlike mass-produced, commercially distributed pornography. To date, these materials have received scant scholarly or sociological attention, and The Kinsey Institute is displaying the majority of these items for the first time.

This exhibition was curated by Betsy Stirratt, Director of the IU School of Fine Arts Gallery; Blaise Cronin, Dean and Rudy Professor of Information Science, IU School of Library and Information Science; and Garry Milius, Associate Curator at The Kinsey Institute.

Eros in Asia is the first exhibition from The Kinsey Institute to highlight its extensive collection of erotic artwork from across the Asian continent. In the 1940s and 1950s, Dr. Alfred Kinsey actively collected visual materials from around the world, to enable him to study sexual behavior and attitudes.

Since that time the institute has continued to acquire paintings, prints, illustrated books, sculptures, and art objects from Asian countries, each of which has its unique artistic traditions and genres for the visual representation of sexuality. Although the majority of the artworks in the exhibition were produced in China, India, Iran, and Japan, the countries of Turkey, Mongolia, and Burma are also represented in the show.

Thor (Samuel Steward), United States Three Wheelers, c.1954
Ink on paper

Selected images from this exhibit are available online at KinseyInstituteGallery.com. Choose "Pre-Revolutionary Queer" from the "Exhibitions" menu.

This exhibition brings together a diverse collection of artwork, photographs, newsletters, magazines, and other materials from the Kinsey Institute archives documenting the existence of a vibrant but largely underground gay culture prior to the start of the modern gay rights movement in the late 1960s.

Just in time for the upcoming elections, The Kinsey Institute offers a
glimpse of presidential politics viewed by adult and underground media sources from its unique
and rich collections. Featuring magazines, tabloids, newspapers and newsletters from the later
half of the 20th century, this exhibit reveals a different perspective on the elections -
sometime humorous, and often out of sight from that of the mainstream media. "Sex and
Presidential Politics" is part of the Indiana University Libraries’ “Politics and Presidents: A
Month-Long Celebration of Archives and Special Collections.”

You can read more about this exhibit in the Fall 2008 edition of
Kinsey Today.

Herbert Ascherman has been working as a fine art photographer for more than forty years, yet the
photographs in this exhibition come from a body of personal work previously known to only a small group
of friends and collectors. Selected from more than 400 original prints in the Institute’s permanent
collection, these photographs represent Ascherman’s four decades of exploring human sexuality in all its
fascinating variety.

The curator of this exhibition is Claude Cookman, an historian of photography and a professor in the
School of Journalism at Indiana University in Bloomington. He says of Ascherman's work: “Based on the
evidence in these photographs, people feel absolutely comfortable engaging in sexual play in front of
Ascherman’s camera. From bondage to pony games, from the domination scene to expressive dance, as
individuals, couples and groups, they abandon all inhibitions with this photographer. The result is a
refreshing naturalism, shared not just with the photographer but all who feast on these images.”

This multi-media show featured photographs, sculptures, paintings, textiles, and mixed media pieces submitted by artists from across the United States, Canada and England. The nearly eighty contemporary artworks explored a range of topics including eroticism, body image, motherhood, gender, and the human figure.

Women of Pleasure examined the depiction of women in 18th and 19th century European erotic art and literature, using paintings, engravings, etchings, photographs, artifacts, books, and other materials from the Institute's collections.

Dana Rabin, Ph.D., a historian from the University of Illinois, presented a lecture titled "The Sorceress, the Servant, and the Stays: Sexuality, Race, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Britain, " on Friday, February 22, 2008. Following the lecture, the curator of the exhibit gave a brief talk in the gallery (2nd floor, Morrison Hall). This event was offered as part of ArtsWeek 2008.

The Kinsey Institute Gallery presents a short-term exhibition by artist Robb
Stone. iGuy (HeLovesMeHeLovesMeNot.com) features a collection of photo and text-based
collage that explore the erotic world of online social networking. All artworks were made
specifically for this show and include actual images from websites such as Manhunt and Craigslist,
where gay men can post profiles and look for potential partners. Stone describes his experience of
sex in the age of the Internet, raising questions about self-objectification, wish-fulfillment, and
the implications for love. The artist gave a short gallery talk at 6:00 pm during the opening
reception on Friday, January 11.

A panel discussion titled Virtual Connections: Sexuality and Relationships Online was held on Friday, January 11, in Morrison Hall 007 in conjunction with the opening of iGuy (HeLovesMeHeLovesMeNot.com), an art exhibit by Robb Stone on the erotic world of online social networking.

Inspired by the Kinsey Institute's syndicated newspaper column titled "The Kinsey Confidential," this exhibit in the Kinsey Institute Gallery looks at commonly asked questions about sexual health and behavior. Questions are answered and illustrated using artworks, photographs, objects, and print materials from the Institute's extensive art and library collections.

The KI Juried Erotic Art Show 2007, on view from April 13 - July 20 in The Kinsey Institute Gallery, is the second in what is planned as an annual Kinsey Institute competition and art exhibit. This year's show features 80 works of exciting contemporary art in a wide range of media - photographs, collages, paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures and textile art.

Artworks were selected by juror Karen Baldner, an exhibiting artist and faculty member at the Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis. Karen has shown her work extensively throughout the United States and Europe, and is a member of Soho20 Chelsea Gallery in New York City.

The Kinsey Institute presents Queer Projections, a celebration of the contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals to the film industry, both in front of and behind the camera. The exhibition also explores the representation of GLBT characters in Hollywood and independent films. Assembled by guest curator Dr. Brian J. Woodman, the exhibit features a variety of film posters, photographs, movie stills, and other cinema-related ephemera.

Queer Projections will open in conjunction with the annual PRIDE Film Festival, held from January 25 through 27 at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater in downtown Bloomington. A small exhibit of film materials from the Institute's collection will be on display at the theater during the month of January.

Expressive Bodies surveys the use of the photographic medium by contemporary artists to express ideas about sexuality and gender, or to explore the visual impact of the human figure. This exhibition featured photographs by established artists such as Laura Aguilar, Erwin Olaf, Pierre et Gilles, Joel-Peter Witkin, Herb Ritts, Arthur Tress, Michael Macku, Ivan Pinkava, Mariette Pathy Allen, and Frank Yamrus, as well as talented photographers at the start of their artistic careers.

The contemporary artworks featured in the exhibition were selected by Betsy Stirratt, an exhibiting artist and director of the School of Fine Arts Gallery at Indiana University. The multi-media show features photography, sculpture, painting, textiles, and wearable art submitted by artists from across the United States. This year's exhibition is the first in what is planned as an annual competition and art exhibit.

This exhibition uses posters, press kits, photographs, and other materials to examine the use of sex as a marketing tool by Hollywood studios and independent film companies. Selected posters represent a number of genres, from the exploitation pictures of the 1930s through the first mainstream X-rated films of the 1970s.

Passionate Creatures: Animal Imagery in Art

August 22 - December 23, 2005

Animals have inspired artists since the first cave painters set to work, and animal imagery is common in the erotic art of many cultures. Numerous examples are found in the paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, photographs, and artifacts in The Kinsey Institute's renowned research collection. Real and mythological creatures are represented in this exhibition of objects and artwork spanning more than two thousand years of cultural history.

IdentitySexualityGender:Contemporary Art from the Collection of Thomas Robertello

April 15 - August 5, 2005

This loan exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to view an exciting collection of recent work by an international group of artists, including Amy Cutler, Peregrine Honig, Robert Horvath, Nikki S. Lee, Conor McGrady, Kim Murak, Sergei Pachomow, Ed Paschke, and Anne Wilson.

Artworks by three Russian émigrés--Marc Chagall, Pavel Tchelitchew, and Andrey Avinoff--is the focus of this exhibit. Also on view is an original portrait of Alfred Kinsey by Boris Artzybasheff, produced for the cover of TIME magazine in 1953.

Sex Ed

October 20, 2005 - February 11, 2006

This exhibit looked at the dissemination of information about sex, reproduction, and health over the past several centuries. Materials on display included film posters, fetal development models, novelty condoms, birth control devices from previous eras including an 18th century condom, educational films, fertility statues, Japanese pillow books, and copies of the Kama Sutra, marriage manuals, and other sexual education materials.

This exhibit featured photographs, prints, drawings, and watercolors by American artists, including Thomas Hart Benton, Paul Cadmus, Maynard Dixon, Harry Engle, Jared French, Rockwell Kent, Douglas Kirkland, George Platt Lynes, Irving Penn, and Clara Tice. Also on display were movie posters, cartoons, and a variety of artifacts and novelty items.

Eroticism and Music

February 6 - March 2, 2004

The Kinsey Institute art gallery featured a selection of artwork illustrating the connection between eroticism and music. The exhibit included engravings, lithographs, etchings, and photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries.

An exhibition of photographs from The Kinsey Institute's important collection of work by the 20th century American photographer George Platt Lynes. Images include portraits of George Balanchine, the Russian-born choreographer who co-founded the New York City Ballet, and the dancers with whom he worked.

Undercover presents a selection of photographs, prints, paintings, and sculptures from The Kinsey Institute that explore the stories we tell one another about sex, stories that seek to obfuscate, glorify, mystify, boast, or jest about sex.

This show was part of the annual Spirit and Place Festival in Indianapolis in November, 2013. On Wednesday, November 6, Kinsey Institute Curator Catherine Johnson-Roehr was at the IAC to give a guided tour of the show from 6-8pm.

Interludes

January 28 - March 3, 2013

Fine Arts Center, Southwestern University

Interludes is an exhibition of paintings by Michael Mogavero, as well as art from the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. The show was curated by Victoria Star Varner, professor of art at Southwestern University. It was organized for the Brown Symposium XXXV, Sex Talk: A Symposium with Benefits (Kinsey Institute affiliated faculty member Dr. Debby Herbenick is one of the speakers).

Ephemeral Ink features a selection of tattoo art drawn from The Kinsey Institute Collections. The exhibition was curated by Amy Tims, an intern at The Kinsey Institute from the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS).

Show curator Amy Tims and Kinsey Institute Curator of Art, Artifacts, and Photographs Catherine Johnson-Roehr gave a lecture about the exhibit on February 24th, 2012.

Discover 150 years of urban history through the lens of gender, sexuality, and nonconformity. This exhibition uses four themes—individuals and their bodies, family and home, communities, and political action—to present the city’s diverse LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) history. Out in Chicago is part of a continuing series about the city’s communities.

Items from the Kinsey Collection appearing in Out in Chicago include an Alfred Kinsey letter written on Chicago hotel stationery, an original drawing by Samuel Steward, and two of Steward’s cards for his Chicago tattoo business.

In Obscene Diary, the rich sexual documentation of one remarkable individual, a professor, tattoo artist, pornographer and sexual record keeper, Samuel Steward is unveiled. This exhibition features the most comprehensive group of artifacts from the Steward Archive that will ever be made available for public view and asks patrons to reflect on what it would look like if their own sexual histories were documented and what this would say about the times in which we live.

Items from the Kinsey Collection appearing in the exhibit include photographs and a watercolor album, as well as correspondence between Alfred Kinsey and Samuel Steward.

Exposed offers a fascinating look at pictures made on the sly, without the explicit permission of the people depicted. With photographs from the late nineteenth century to present day, the pictures present a shocking, illuminating and witty perspective on iconic and taboo subjects.

The exhibit features one photograph from the Kinsey Documentary Collection. The exhibit was previously on display at The Tate Museum, London, UK from May 28 - October 3, 2010, and at the San Francisco Museum of Art from October 30, 2010 - April 17, 2011.

Carnegie Museum of Art presents the first exhibition in more than 50 years devoted to the visionary art of the brilliant and talented Andrey Avinoff (1884–1949), who believed that beauty will save the world. His exotic story, from the court of the Russian tsar to the mountains of Tibet, from an upstate New York dairy farm to the laboratories of Pittsburgh and the salons of Park Avenue, has never been told in full. Best known for his scientific research on butterflies, Avinoff created a rich body of weird, fantastical, symbolist watercolor paintings that express ideas about metamorphosis, transience, and change.

The exhibit includes 8 artworks by Andrey Avinoff from the Kinsey Institute art collection.

RUBBERS features artifacts that cover the gamut from vintage photographs of sexually transmitted diseases to military signage campaigning for the sexual safety of soldiers to a wide array of antique condoms, tins, and dispensers. Highlights of the exhibition include conceptual art pieces such as the cruel condom, a condom crafted entirely out of chainmail and covered with spikes and Franco B’s resin condom sculpture assembled from gritty used condoms taken from the floor and trash of the infamous FIST nightclub in London.

The exhibition also includes the marriage of function and fashion with the inclusion of Adriana Bertini’s couture condom cocktail dress, made from 1200 hand dyed condoms and fashioned after the Valentino dresses of the 1960s, trendy and contemporary condoms from renowned designers such as Marc Jacobs, as well as “condiments,” functional salt and pepper shakers designed and molded after condoms.

The exhibit features vintage condom containers and a few other items from the collection of The Kinsey Institute, as well as a display of condom use information provided by Dr. William Yarber, IU Professor and Kinsey Institute Research Fellow.

Featuring Marsden Hartley, Charles Demuth, George Platt Lynes, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, and many more eminent artists from the late 19th century to the present day, this exhibition presents a rare and beautiful survey of homoerotic art. Groundbreaking in its scope, aim, and venue, this exhibition asserts a homosexual presence in Western Art since the Renaissance. "If this exhibition reveals more parts of the male anatomy than are usually seen in public exhibitions, it also reveals a need for recognition of and freedom of expression for homosexual artists." We invite visitors to join in this celebration of homosexual art history.

The exhibit features 20 photographs and artworks from the Kinsey Institute Collection. The exhibition also appeared at the Central Connecticut State University Art Gallery from March 18 - April 22nd, 2010.

This original exhibit, researched and created by Curator Craig Bruns and Seaport staff, features
traditional and modern tattooing tools, flash (tattoo design samples) and other tattoo-related art,
historic photographs and artifacts, a recreation of an old-time "tattoo parlor," and a mini-documentary
of the recorded personal stories of tattooed sailors.

The exhibit includes a number of tattoo photographs from the collection of The Kinsey Institute.

The Wild Project Gallery presented the exhibition Kinsey's Women in conjunction with Electric
Pear Productions' U.S. Premiere of “The Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents” by Lukas Bärfuss.
The exhibition Kinsey's Women featured a small selection of photographs culled from the extensive Kinsey
Institute archive. Kinsey collected images in search of clues to the social history of sex. The images range
from professional to amateur, with the amateur offering an often playful glimpse into a wide range of sexual
experiences. One of Kinsey's greatest revelations was that there is no such thing as normative sexuality.
This insight formed the point of departure for Bärfuss' central character Dora, who emerges with an adamant
sexual hunger that pits her against a hidden and strange adult world. Kinsey's Women makes reference to
the various permutations of Dora's journey.

Kinsey's Women featured photographs from The Kinsey Institute collections.

Darkside: Photographic Desire and Sexuality Photographed

September 6 - November 16, 2008

Fotomuseum Winterthur, Zurich, Switzerland

This exhibit featured photographs from the collections of The Kinsey Institute.

For sexuality and fantasy, photography is a central visual instrument: as document, stimulation, instrument of power, and as a form for artistic creation. Photography shows and stylizes pleasure and passion, voyeurism and self-representation, sexual power and consumption. Fantasies and desires form an exciting pact with photography: sexual fantasies demand representation, actively seek disclosure—and photography uses this power of (pictorial) eroticism for its own ends, to be powerful and seductive.

Darkside is dedicated to photographs of ideal, natural, and grotesque bodies; conceives of sexuality as a part of existence; presents photographed sexual practices, desires, and phantasms; discusses sexuality in Surrealism; reflects on reification and fetishization in sexuality; compares voyeurism and exhibitionism with one another; takes up the topics of sexuality and the body within the context of debates around gender, as well as power and the market. Throughout it is always a question of the images we make of “sexuality,” of the endless interflow of fantasies and reality in visual desire over the last one hundred years.

Seduced explored the representation of sex in art through the ages. Featuring over 300 works spanning 2000 years, it brought together Roman sculptures, Indian manuscripts, Japanese prints, Chinese watercolours, Renaissance and Baroque paintings and 19th century photography with modern and contemporary art.

Seduced featured photographs from the Kinsey Institute collection, and received rave reviews from the British press.

Art of Sex: Selections from The Kinsey Institute

May 17 - May 19, 2005

This exhibition features more than thirty artworks collected during Alfred Kinsey's lifetime, as well as books, letters and written materials documenting Kinsey's life and work.

This exhibition was the exciting result of a collaboration between three Indiana University institutions--the Mathers Museum, the Elizabeth Sage Historic Costume Collection, and The Kinsey Institute. (Exhibited at the Mathers Museum of World Cultures on the Bloomington campus.)

"An intimate glimpse into the most private conduct of Chinese society, past and present," features selections from the Institute's collection of Chinese art, books and artifacts. John Vollmer is curator, and Kinsey Institute Librarian Liana Zhou serves as curatorial consultant.

SexFacts and Fantasies

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to enlarge.

The
Deutsches Hygiene-Museum's
comprehensive look at fact and fantasy, science and art. The history
of sex research is represented by Kinsey and his colleagues with
images from the Institute collections. The show runs November, 2001
through August, 2002.

Interwoven Lives: Geroge Platt Lynes and his friends

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The
photograph of Alfred Kinsey by George Platt Lynes is part of an
exhibition at the DC Moore Gallery in New York. The show, titled
"Interwoven Lives: George Platt Lynes and his friends," featured
works by Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Pavel Tchelitchew, George Tooker and
other artists active in New York in the 1930s and 1940s.
Sept. 6 through Sept. 29, 2001

The American Century

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The
American Century exhibit is the largest display mounted to date
at the Gerald R. Ford Museum,
Grand Rapids, Michigan, April 10 - October 17, 1999, with over 500
artifacts, documents, photographs, paintings and costumes from the
20th century. The Kinsey Institute loaned a page from the original
manuscript of Sexual Behavior in the Human Female and a photo
of Dr. Kinsey editing the galley proofs. Other artifacts included
Charles Lindbergh's flight suit, Houdini's handcuffs, and a NASA
lunar lander.

Watching from the Wings: Warhol and Dance

The
Watching from the Wings exhibition features the work of Andy
Warhol as well as 14 George Platt Lynes photographs on loan from
The Kinsey Institute. These photographs of New York City Ballet
dancers from the 1930's, 40's, and 50's were part of Lynes' commercial
output, and explore the sensuality expressed through dance.

The Kiss: Selections from The Kinsey Institute

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enlarge.

A public exhibition
at the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts (SoFA) Gallery,
Indiana University, Bloomington, October 23-November 24, 1998.

The Kiss Exhibition traces the representation of the kiss in the
19th and the 20th centuries. Spanning a variety of cultures, it
includes more than 50 film stills, watercolors, woodblock prints,
and amateur and professional photographs. This exhibit was chosen
to complement the "Bodily Aesthetics and the Kiss" panel
presentation at the American Society of Aesthetics conference
at IU in November. It is being produced with support of the Institute,
the Friends of The Kinsey Institute, and the Henry Radford Hope
School of Fine Arts.

Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture

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visit the web site.

An exhibition
tracing the influence of Freud and psychoanalysis on 20th century
culture, October 15, 1998 - January 16, 1999, at the Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C., the Jewish Museum in New York, and international
venues. From its archives, The Kinsey Institute loaned the exhibition
a manuscript letter (page
one and page
two) by Freud in 1935 to an American mother concerned about
how to respond to her son's homosexuality. The letter was displayed
in SECTION TWO, The Individual: Therapy and Theory.

In Visible Light: Photography & Classification in
Art, Science, and the Everyday

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An exhibition
at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England, March 16 -July 6,
1997, sponsored by Oxford University Press. This photograph of
an "Atlas" figure is one of eight photographs from The Kinsey
Institute on display. Taxonomy, the science of classification,
is the core theme of the exhibition, which ranges from the 19th
century to the present.

The Art of Desire: Erotic Treasures from The
Kinsey Institute

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enlarge.

A
public
exhibition at the Henry Radford Hope School of Fine Arts (SoFA)
Gallery, Indiana University, October 24 - December 5, 1997.

The exhibition presented the first comprehensive survey of The Kinsey
Institute's art and photography collections, and was part of the
Institute's 50th anniversary
celebration. More than 200 items, ranging from ancient Egyptian,
pre-Columbian, and Roman objects to nineteenth-century graphic arts
to contemporary photography, are on display. The exhibition features
works by well-known artists, including Rembrandt and Picasso, as
well as those by anonymous artisans and amateurs. From exquisite
Japanese porcelain pieces to fairground souvenirs, the objects in
the exhibition attest to the power and pervasiveness of the expression
of human sexual desire.

A catalog featuring 50
images from the exhibition is available for purchase. See also "
The Art of Desire" in the September 1997 issue of Indiana University's
online publication, Research and Creative Activity.

Goodbye to Berlin? 100 Years of Gay Liberation

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Eight
photographs from The Kinsey Institute's collections were on display
at this exhibition, held May 17 - August 17, 1997 at the Akademie
der Künste, Berlin. The exhibition was sponsored by Schwules
Museum.

Rrose is a Rrose: Gender Performance in Photography

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This
exhibition, to which The Kinsey Institute contributed this untitled
work by George Platt Lynes, examines the way in which gender identity
is theatrically constructed in photography. The two venues for the
exhibition were:

The Erotic Art of Ukiyo-e: Selections from the Collection
of The Kinsey Institute

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enlarge.

An
exhibition held at the Indiana University Art Museum, August 17
- 20, 1995, in conjunction with Sexuality and Edo Culture, 1750
- 1850, an international conference sponsored by the East Asian
Studies Center, Indiana University.

The conference proceedings, Imaging/Reading
Eros (1996) can be ordered from the East Asian Studies Center.

Selections from the Collections of The Kinsey
Institute

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to enlarge.

A
private exhibition of twenty-seven works from the art and artifact
collections, held at The Kinsey Institute, November 29, 1990 - May
30, 1991. Works were presented in two categories: European and American
Art, 1800-1965, and Art of Oceanic, African, and Pre-Columbian Cultures.
The Institute also published an accompanying exhibition
catalog.